Why do you care

Vespera returned to her room, sat on the bed, and couldn’t get Yvonne’s words out of her head. All the fun she'd been having with Alaric evaporated, leaving only self-doubt behind.

She felt conflicted and wronged—Alaric had flat-out asked her to stop liking Quinn, and she’d agreed without thinking. But now, she wondered, why did she have to agree?

Alaric had never said he liked her. He never asked if she liked him back, nor if he still had feelings for Elowen. He just crashed the wedding, swept her away like some knight on a white horse, and in the whirlwind of it all, she’d just gone along with it.

But she forgot that princes end up with princesses, and in Alaric’s story, the princess was Elowen, not her.

He hadn’t promised her anything, not even a hint of commitment—just the fleeting heat of that one night and that electrifying kiss that gave Vespera a misplaced hope. And Yvonne’s words? They were like a slap in the face, jolting her awake.

Her phone suddenly buzzed—Alaric’s message